The present invention relates generally to a crimp-style terminal for a cable. More particularly, the present invention relates to improvement of a crimp-style terminal of the foregoing type which assures that a strength of the terminal against cable disconnection or breakage at cable conductor clamping portions is substantially increased.
To facilitate an understanding of the present invention, a typical conventional crimp-style terminal for a cable will be described below with reference to FIG. 4 and FIG. 5.
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the conventional crimp-style terminal which is disclosed in an official gazette of Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication NO. 61-166372.
The crimp-style terminal generally designated by reference numeral 16 includes a base plate 17 of which one end serves as a female type electrical contact section 19 having a leaf spring 18 received therein and of which the other end serves as a clamping portion comprising a pair of conductor clamping pieces 21 for clamping unsheathed conductors 20 extending from a cable 18 and a pair of sheath clamping pieces 23 for clamping a sheath 22 of the cable 18.
While the cable 18 is placed on the base plate 17 to extend in the longitudinal direction, the conductor clamping pieces 21 and the sheath clamping pieces 23 are inwardly folded by actuating jigs (not shown) so that the conductors 20 are tightly held by the conductor clamping pieces 21 and the sheath 22 is tightly held by the sheath clamping pieces 23 in the clamped state. FIG. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view of the terminal taken along line B--B in FIG. 4, particularly illustrating the operative state that the conductors 20 and the sheath 22 are tightly clamped by the conductor clamping pieces 21 and the sheath crimping pieces 23. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 24 designates engagement pieces each projecting from the base plate 17. The engagement pieces 24 are used for allowing the terminal 16 to be fixedly secured to the inside of a connector (not shown).
With the conventional crimp-style terminal constructed in the above-described manner, however, there arises a problem that when a certain intensity of pulling force P is abruptly applied to the cable 18, a high stress is exerted concentratively on stepped parts 25 of the conductors 20 formed by the tight crimping action of the conductor clamping pieces 21, resulting in the conductors 20 being broken at the stepped parts 25, or the cable 18 itself is disconnected from both the clamping portions 26 and 27.